A hard-working operations manager at Knebworth House and Barns has been honoured after three decades in the hospitality industry.
Martin Lomas has celebrated 30 years of continuous service in the hospitality sector, with half of those years spent at Knebworth.
If you have attended or hosted an event or wedding at Knebworth House and Barns over the past 15 years, it is extremely likely that Martin Lomas would have been running around behind the scenes ensuring everything ran smoothly and to a high standard.
RA Venues and Knebworth House, who work in partnership, presented Martin with a certificate to mark his 30 years in the hospitality business.
Knebworth managing director Martha Lytton Cobbold said: “It’s an absolute delight to see our colleague Martin being recognised for his extraordinary and exemplary work in the hospitality industry, as well as over half of those three decades with us here at Knebworth.
"He is a credit to the industry and to us all at Knebworth House and Barns.”
Martin’s favourite memory from his 15 years at Knebworth House and Barns is from 2019 when the hit Netflix movie ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’ was filmed on location at the Hertfordshire estate.
Released in the summer of 2020, the film stars Anchorman and Elf favourite Will Ferrell, Sherlock Holmes' Rachel McAdams, and Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey.
The movie follows aspiring Icelandic musicians Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) who are given the opportunity of a lifetime to represent their country at the world's biggest song competition.
As a huge Eurovision fan, Martin was thrilled to see Eurovision Song Contest winners, such as Austrian singer Conchita Wurst and Israeli singer Netta Barzilai, on site to film the ‘song-along’ section of the film.
Even during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when the hospitality industry was not able to operate, Martin was working hard at a local testing site with colleagues Cydney and Zach.
In Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Knebworth House doubled for the mansion where Russian contestant Alexander Lemtov, played by Dan Stevens, holds a soirée prior to the Eurovision finals.
Movie production designer Paul Inglis said at the time: "We went to town at Knebworth. It was an absolute joy!
"We turned it into a modern party house for a Russian bachelor about town.
"We had four gold-plated supercars parked outside, flambeaus and a red carpet.
"Inside we added ice sculptures, naked statues of Lemtov, gold staircases, marble and disco balls.”
You can watch the movie on Netflix.
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